Present levels of utilization of contained manganese in thousands of short tons. 



World 8,000 



United States 1,200 



Ranges of demand projections to the year 2000. 



Prospective supplies and prices. Domestic reserves are small and for the most part not competitive 

 with major deposits of the world. Large resources are mostly in developing countries and politically 

 unstable areas. 



Domestic price is determined by world price. Low grade domestic resources would require a higher 

 price than the current world price to be minable. Fluctuations in world price will result from changes in 

 ocean freight rates which make up about one-third of the delivered price. 



Possible substitute materials. Titanium, zirconium, and rare-earth metals can assume some of the 

 functions of manganese in steel but there are technical limitations to the extent to which they may be 

 interchanged, as well as problems of technology, cost, and supply. A number of dry cells have been 

 developed which do not use manganese and their use is expanding. The chemical and miscellaneous 

 industries offer possibilities for use of other materials in place of manganese and such substitutions are 

 made when costs are favorable. 



Potential from marine sources. Manganese nodules, containing nickel, cobalt, copper, and iron, as well 

 as manganese, have been described from several hundred locaHties, worldwide, on the ocean floor. The 

 most abundant and highest grade nodules occur on the deep ocean floor of the Pacific. They appear to 

 be less common in the Atlantic but a deposit covering 1,800 square miles in 1,500 to 3,000 feet of 

 water'"* is known on the Blake Plateau off the U.S. southeastern seacoast. Manganese stains and crusts 

 are also found in the Gulf of Maine but they are not sufficiently rich and abundant to attract economic 

 interest. 



The composition of nodules varies considerably from one locality to another and within a single 

 nodule. Analyses of 54 nodules from the Pacific and preliminary analyses of nodules from the Blake 

 Plateau show this comparison. 



'^Ocean Science and Engineering, Inc. report to Economic Associates, Inc. and Marine Science Council, October 

 1967. 



Vn-140 



